transcend
English
Etymology
From Middle English transcenden, from Old French transcender, from Latin transcendere (“to climb over, step over, surpass, transcend”), from trans (“over”) + scandere (“to climb”); see scan; compare ascend, descend.
Pronunciation
- IPA(key): /tɹæn(t)ˈsɛnd/
Audio (US) (file) - Rhymes: -ɛnd
Verb
transcend (third-person singular simple present transcends, present participle transcending, simple past and past participle transcended)
- (transitive) To pass beyond the limits of something.
- a. 1627 (date written), Francis [Bacon], “Considerations Touching a VVarre vvith Spaine. […]”, in William Rawley, editor, Certaine Miscellany VVorks of the Right Honourable Francis Lo. Verulam, Viscount S. Alban. […], London: […] I. Hauiland for Humphrey Robinson, […], published 1629, OCLC 557721855:
- such personal popes, emperors, or elective kings, as shall transcend their limits
- 2008, BioWare, Mass Effect (Science Fiction), Redwood City: Electronic Arts, →ISBN, OCLC 246633669, PC, scene: Virmire:
- Shepard: What do you want from us? Slaves? Resources?
My kind transcends your very understanding. We are each a nation. Independent, free of all weakness. You cannot grasp the nature of our existence.
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- (transitive) To surpass, as in intensity or power; to excel.
- c. 1698, John Dryden, Epitaph on the Monument of a Fair Maiden Lady (
- How much her worth transcended all her kind.
- c. 1698, John Dryden, Epitaph on the Monument of a Fair Maiden Lady (
- (obsolete) To climb; to mount.
- lights in the heavens transcending the region of the clouds
- 1655, James Howell, “To Sir Tho. Haw.”, in Epistolæ Ho-Elianæ. Familiar Letters Domestic and Forren. […], volume (please specify the page), 3rd edition, London: […] Humphrey Mos[e]ley, […], OCLC 84295516:
- your Muse soars up to the upper, and transcending that too, takes her fight among the Celestial bodies
Synonyms
- (to pass beyond the limits of something): exceed, overgo, surpass; see also Thesaurus:transcend
- (to surpass something): better, dwarf, eclipse; see also Thesaurus:exceed
- (to climb): ascend
Derived terms
Derived terms
- transcendence
- transcendency
- transcendent
- transcendental
- transcendentalism
- transcendentalist
- transcendentally
- transcending
- transcension
Translations
to pass beyond the limits of something
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to surpass something in intensity or power; to excel
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Further reading
- transcend in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, G. & C. Merriam, 1913
- transcend in The Century Dictionary, New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., 1911